Two elections supervisors are taking action after an NBC2 investigation uncovers flawed record keeping and human error allowing people who are not citizens of the United States to vote. No one knows how widespread this problem is, because county election supervisors have no way to track non-citizens who live here. So NBC2 did something election officials never thought to do, and found them on our own. "I vote every year," Hinako Dennett told NBC2. The Cape Coral resident is not a US citizen, yet she's registered to vote. NBC2 found Dennett after reviewing her jury excusal form. She told the...

Hm. For some unexplained reason the Chicago Tribune web site seems to have the text of the review cut off. But I manually copied some of the text out of my newspaper this morning. The review is of a movie about someone running for office. The following is a description of one of the movie's characters named Hammond who was elected President and his actions:“He doesn’t believe in the American democratic process at all, in fact, though the movie doesn’t seem to realize what it’s even espousing half the time.Hammond goes to work, declaring martial law; lining up gangsters for...

Please forgive the vanity post, but I'm in an RKBA discussion and need a little support. The premise I've been presented with is "the purpose of guns is to kill people". I want to counter with "'x' rounds of ammunition are produced each year. 'y' rounds are expended to kill people. The rest are used for hunting and target/skeet shooting. 99.999+% of rounds are expended for hunting and recreation purposes. That is the main purpose people use guns for." Crime statistics should give me "Y", but I can't find a source for "X", how many rounds are manufactured in the...

EL PASO — Fernando Espinosa always thought of his Boy Scout experience as a way to learn about leadership and helping others. But he never expected his 10 years of scouting to help him become a hero. On Jan. 22, without thinking twice, Espinosa pushed teacher Glenda Tanner, 47, out of the way of a car at a crosswalk in front of Franklin High School. The car struck Espinosa, who received a head injury from the windshield and hurt his left knee. ... For his bravery, Espinosa, 17, will be awarded the Honor Medal with Crossed Palms on Friday at...

Administrators cite safety concerns; parents say move sounds like a protest Reveling in its first conference championship in 26 years, the Highland Park High School girls varsity basketball team has been selling cookies for months to raise funds for a tournament in Arizona. But those hoop dreams were dashed when players learned they couldn't go because of that state's new crackdown on illegal immigrants. Safety concerns partly fueled the decision, but the trip also "would not be aligned with our beliefs and values," said District 113 Assistant Superintendent Suzan Hebson. That explanation, though, smacks of political protest to parents upset...

Excerpted quotes: ... we fiddled with the door and it was jammed. I thought, well, maybe the door’s latched. So I walked back to the kitchen porch, unlocked the door and came into the house. And I unlatched the door, but it was still jammed. ... It looked like someone’s footprint was there. So it’s possible that the door had been jimmied, that someone had tried to get in while I was in China. But for whatever reason, the lock was damaged. My driver hit the door with his shoulder and the door popped open. But the lock was permanently...

The superstars at Harvard defied markets for years-- until now. Here's the inside story of how they finally tripped up.Stocks were tumbling last fall as the new school year began, but at Harvard University it was as if the boom had never ended. Workers were digging across the river from Harvard's Cambridge, Mass. home, the start of a grand expansion that was to eventually almost double the size of the university. Budgets were plump, and students from middle-class families were getting big tuition breaks under an ambitious new financial aid program. The lavish spending was made possible by the earnings...

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly: Section 5. The State Finance Act is amended by adding Section 5.675 as follows: (30 ILCS 105/5.675 new) Sec. 5.675. The Boy Scout and Girl Scout Fund. Section 10. The Illinois Vehicle Code is amended by adding Section 3-664 as follows: (625 ILCS 5/3-664 new) Sec. 3-664. Boy Scout and Girl Scout license plates. (a) The Secretary, upon receipt of an application made in the form prescribed by the Secretary, may issue special registration plates designated to be Boy Scout and Girl Scout plates....

"SOME people have their midlife crisis in reverse, like Ronald Boyer, who for most of his professional life has been better known as a star of pornographic films, Rod Fontana.After 30 years of sowing the wildest of oats, Mr. Boyer, 54, has searched his soul and chosen, to the surprise of family and colleagues, to seek a priesthood in the Episcopal Church."It’s all here …but hold it just a minute there, folks. Haven't we heard this trope before? About a guy named McGreevey? And remember how that ended--much ado about nothing?Well, it turns out that's what we've got here: some...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - MIT edged out host and defending champion U.S. Military Academy by seven points (6,372-6,365) to secure the pistol program's fifth NRA Intercollegiate National Championship and second in three years. Despite falling to the Black Knights in free pistol by a margin of 26 points, the Engineers overcame the deficit with advantages of 25 and eight points in standard (second place) and air pistol (first place). In the open individual aggregate category, Daipan Lee placed third (1,614) while Eddie Huo finished four points behind him. On the women's side, the squad placed third (2,690) as Diana Nee earned...

ENGLEWOOD, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Data393, a provider of managed IT infrastructure, colocation and hosting solutions, announced today it donated servers to continue operation of more than 20 Scouting-related websites managed by the U.S. Scouting Service Project, Inc. (USSSP), a not-for-profit organization serving tens of thousands of youth members, their parents, program volunteers and employees belonging to multiple Scouting organizations across more than 70 countries. Data393 provides USSSP a managed Windows dedicated hosting environment for its primary website, www.usscouts.org, and for ancillary websites supporting the Scouting movement worldwide. The USSSP is an internet-based Missouri corporation with board members in eight states, including one...

“The primates of the Anglican Communion have utterly failed to recognize the faith, relationships, and vocations of the gay and lesbian baptized,” said Integrity President Susan Russell, responding to the communiqué released today from Dar Es Salaam. “Let us pray it doesn't take another hundred years for yet-unborn primates to gather for a service of repentance for what the church has done to its gay and lesbian members today, as they repented in Zanzibar yesterday for what it did to those the church failed to embrace as full members of the Body of Christ.” The Rev. Michael Hopkins, immediate past...

The Pacific Legal Foundation announced Tuesday that it will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a decision by the California Supreme Court that affirmed the city of Berkeley's right to deny the Berkeley Sea Scouts free berthing privileges at its marina. The city revoked the scouts' berthing privileges in 1998 because the group is affiliated with the Boy Scouts of America, which bans atheists and gays. The city said the ban violates Berkeley's anti-discrimination ordinance. The scouts, who had berthed for free for more than 60 years, appealed to the courts, calling the city's policy a violation of the...

The Green Bay Press Gazette is reporting that their local United Way has changed their non-discrimination policy to simply require that all agencies must conform to all non-discrimination laws. Since the BSA's right to do what they do has been upheld in the Supreme Court, the local Council can now apply for funds. See this link for details.

This is the text of the "Support our Scouts Act".SEC. 8173. SUPPORT FOR YOUTH ORGANIZATIONS- (a) Short Title- This Act may be cited as the `Support Our Scouts Act of 2005'.(b) Support for Youth Organizations- (1) DEFINITIONS- In this subsection--(A) the term `Federal agency' means each department, agency, instrumentality, or other entity of the United States Government; and(B) the term `youth organization'--(i) means any organization that is designated by the President as an organization that is primarily intended to--(I) serve individuals under the age of 21 years;(II) provide training in citizenship, leadership, physical fitness, service to community, and teamwork; and(III)...

As someone who lived in France for nearly a decade, and who has visited those suburban ghettos, where the violence started, on reporting trips any number of times, I have not been surprised by this tsunami of inchoate youth rebellion that is engulfing France. It is the result of thirty years of government neglect: of the failure of the French political classes -- of both right and left -- to make any serious effort to integrate its Muslim and black populations into the larger French economy and culture; and of the deep-seated, searing, soul-destroying racism that the unemployed and profoundly...

Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and Bible study groups are free to hold meetings at San Diego public schools without paying fees. The San Diego Unified School District has revoked an unpopular policy implemented in August to charge Scouting groups user fees. It also agreed to stop charging an elementary school Bible study group, the Good News Club, and similar youth organizations. The reversals are part of an effort by the district to settle a federal lawsuit filed by Child Evangelism Fellowship in June. The organization, which sponsors the Good News Club, alleged discrimination because it had to pay to meet...

A new television series being broadcast around the Middle East tells the story of Arabs living in residential compounds in Saudi Arabia and the militant Islamists who want to blow them up so they can collect their rewards in heaven - 72 beautiful virgins. The show's message: terrorism is giving Islam a bad name, and Muslims are suffering because of the actions of a few. The programs, which began last Tuesday on the first day of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, have come under a blistering attack on the Internet in Arabic language chat rooms. The critics are...

Who is John Roberts? America Needs to Know. The following is the complete petition and 30 questions that Lambda Legal will deliver to the senators before John Roberts’s confirmation hearings begin on September 6, 2005. Sign our petition today and help put pressure on the Senate to ask these important questions. Dear Senator __________: As a civil rights organization that litigates on behalf of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and those with HIV, Lambda Legal has serious concerns about John Roberts’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. His record raises troubling questions about his judicial philosophy, specifically in...

CHICAGO -- Two well-known Chicago religious leaders today hailed an injunction by U.S. District Court Judge Blanche Manning that bars the Pentagon from spending millions of dollars to support future Boy Scout Jamborees (the only youth organization event so funded by the Pentagon).

Faten Habash’s father wept as he assured his daughter there would be no more beatings, no more threats to her life and that she was free to marry the man she loved, even if he was a Muslim. ... Hassan Habash even gave his word to an emissary from a Bedouin tribe traditionally brought in to mediate in matters of family honour, a commitment regarded as sacrosanct in Palestinian society. But the next weekend, as Faten, a 22-year-old Christian Palestinian, watched a Boy Scouts parade from the balcony of her Ramallah home she was dragged into the living room and...

A panel of leading constitutional scholars, including Dean Kenneth Starr, will debate "The Constitution and The Boy Scouts: Equal Access to Government Land and the First Amendment,” on Wednesday, May 18 from noon to 2 p.m. Pacific Time. The public and the media are invited to attend the program or to watch and participate in the Internet. For those attending in person, lunch will be served free of charge. The program is sponsored by the Federalist Society on Law and Public Policy and will be held at the Wyndham Hotel at Emerald Plaza 400 West Broadway, San Diego, CA, in...

BOSTON -- There was barely any daylight when Curt Schilling arose on Monday to pitch in the annual Patriots Day morning game at Fenway Park. As groggy as the big right-hander must have been (Schilling arrived at the park before 7 a.m. ET for the 11:05 start), he was fairly certain that it was his wife Shonda who was going to be spending the day running a marathon. The way things turned out, it was an all-around marathon-like day for the Schilling family. At the same time Shonda was trekking in the historic Boston Marathon, Schilling was laboring his way...

WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist yesterday vowed to pass legislation this year to protect the Boy Scouts of America from attacks by liberal groups challenging federal support for the Scouts because the organization administers a religious oath. The Tennessee Republican predicted his bill and its House counterpart will pass both chambers this year. The legislation has bipartisan support. The bill says no federal law, directive, rule, instruction or order should limit any federal agency from providing support to the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts, including meetings held on federal property. The legislation is a direct response to an...

The Boy Scouts of America is pulling the charters of thousands of scouting units from public schools in an effort to spare them from lawsuits threatened by the American Civil Liberties Union. In a letter sent to the BSA last month, the ACLU vowed to take legal action against public schools and other taxpayer-funded governmental agencies that charter Scout groups, claiming their sponsorship amounts to religious discrimination and violates the separation of church and state. The ACLU specifically takes issue with the Scouts' pledge of allegiance to God and country and the organization's prohibition of homosexuals as scout masters. BSA...

Whether he is in a balloon, a boat, a glider or a jet, show adventurer Steve Fossett a record and he will want to break it. Now he’s trying to become the first man to fly a jet non-stop around the globe. And it all started with a scouting badge. You won't get much poetry out of Steve Fossett, and certainly no introspection. The Chicago billionaire who has brought us the first solo circumnavigation of the globe by balloon, the fastest by yacht – if that’s the right term for a monster high-tech catamaran – and the fastest, highest trip...

The State of Illinois General Assembly has two bills before it that I'd like to ask everyone to support, especially if you live in Illinois! HB0670 would make available special license plates, the fees from which would help support the BSA and GSUSA. SB1813 is the counterpart in the Senate, although it was written to support the BSA only. Illinois residents especially should check these out, see if they have a Senator or Representative on the current commmittee assignments for these bills, and in any case write your Senator and Representative to get these bills out of committee, reconciled, and...

The U.S. House of Representatives this week injected itself into the debate over whether American military bases should be allowed to publicly sponsor Boy Scout chapters, a practice that the Pentagon suspended in November in order to settle a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union. While a Pentagon spokesman insisted that there has been no significant change in the military's relationship with the Boy Scouts as a result of the legal settlement, House Republicans wanted the chamber to go on the record in support of the Scouts. The "sense of the Congress" resolution sponsored by U.S. Rep. Joel...

I am involved in helping my local Boy Scout Council in making Boy Scouts available to new Scout-age children by starting new Troops and Packs. I would like to know if there is some where, some way to publicize the BSA through any home-schooling organizations, especially if there is a concentration in a particular area large enough to start a Pack or Troop for them. I know there's a lot of home-schooling FReepers out there. Any ideas on how to go about this?

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A Purdue University student has been suspended from his job as a physics department assistant and may lose the job after objecting to Purdue's United Way campaign because the charity supports anti-gay groups such as the Boy Scouts. Mike Sloothaak was placed on administrative suspension without pay Nov. 19 after protesting United Way solicitations from the Northwest Indiana university's president and Andrew Hirsch, head of the school's physics department. Those solicitations included an email from the physics department in October that listed all physics graduate students and staff who hadn't returned their United Way pledge forms....

Under pressure from gay and atheist parents, Portland school officials are considering a policy that would ban the Boy Scouts of America from recruiting students during school hours. Under the proposal, non-school groups would be allowed to send literature home with children, but the flier or pamphlet would need to be accompanied with a disclaimer, warning parents that the groups' values may be offensive. "From time to time, you may receive materials from a group that holds values that may offend some of our families," the draft disclaimer says. At a public hearing Wednesday, gay and atheist parents called the...

PHILADELPHIA, PA (11/30/2004)--The Bishop of Pennsylvania, Charles E. Bennison has filed subpoenas against VirtueOnline and the Diocese of Pittsburgh in ongoing litigation between the revisionist bishop and Fr. David L. Moyer, rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd, Rosemont. In previous filings Bennison successfully asked the court, citing Virtuosity, for an order allowing him to keep secret most of the documents he had to produce. Now he is attacking this writer for revealing what was then publicly available. This subpoena is a clear attack on the freedom of the press. Because Bennison is subpoenaing this writer, VirtueOnline intends to...

Mayor Daley said Thursday his beloved Democratic Party took a beating in Tuesday's election because they were "outfoxed": Republicans remembered that all politics is local, while Democrats became the "party of Washington" insiders and big money. "We always thought the Republican Party was Washington, D.C. The Democrats are Washington, D.C., politicians. They don't reach out to a mayor, a governor, or the state chairman. There's no local anymore," Daley said. "If you watch the Republican Party, they're to the people. . . . They're more grass-roots than Democrats. We think we are. The Republicans outfoxed the Democrats. They became the...

The U.S. Department of Education is seeking public comment on proposed regulations that guarantee equal access to public school facilities for the Boy Scouts of America and other patriotic youth groups, Secretary of Education Rod Paige announced today. On behalf of Secretary Paige, Assistant Secretary of Education Ray Simon and the Office for Civil Rights' Ken Marcus joined Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee for an event to discuss the proposed regulations at Ellen Smith Elementary School in Conway, Ark. "The goal of these regulations is to ensure that the Boy Scouts and other patriotic youth groups have equal access to public...

United Way of Ventura County on Thursday revised its two-year-old policy on discrimination, allowing it to give money to such groups as the Boy Scouts of America. United Way had adopted a tough anti-discrimination stance in 2001, effectively cutting off contributions to the Ventura County Council, Boy Scouts of America. The Scouts will not accept homosexuals in leadership positions. United Way's board of directors voted unanimously to adopt the new policy, which allows funding of any organization that doesn't violate state or federal discrimination laws, a news release said. Twenty-four of United Way's 33 board members cast votes, President and...

NORWALK (AP)- The Common Council has approved the use of a local park for a public event by a local troop of the Boy Scouts of America despite some concerns about the organization's ban on gays. The council Tuesday night gave a permit to the organization to hold an outing at Shady Beach. Councilmen Kenneth Baker and Peter Wien touched off the debate two weeks ago when the council's Parks Committee reviewed the Boy Scouts' permit application to use the park for a three-hour campfire and recruitment program. Wien and Baker opposed issuing Norwalk Cub Scoutmaster Greta DeAngelis a permit...

The Norwalk Common Council will have to deal tonight with an issue, we are sure, it would much rather not have on its agenda. The Connecticut Yankee Council of Boy Scouts has requested a permit to hold a recruiting event Oct. 24 at Calf Pasture Beach. The event has become a cause celebre for some, bringing a clash of views over constitutional rights and discriminatory polices of the scouting organization. Now the council will be asked to approve or reject the scouts' application. We can understand the passion of those who argue that the Scout Council should be barred from...

NORWALK -- The Common Council cannot legally deny a Boy Scout troop use of Shady Beach for a recruitment event despite the national group's policy of excluding homosexuals, Mayor Alex Knopp said yesterday. To prevent the Scouts from using the beach would be a violation of First Amendment rights, Knopp said. "There are many decisions in which courts have held that a municipality's decision to deny a permit to a group based on racial, religious or political beliefs was unconstitutional," he said.

NORWALK -- Mayor Alex Knopp has asked the law department to determine whether there is legal precedent for the Common Council to deny a Boy Scouts troop use of Shady Beach for a recruitment drive based on the parent organization's policy of barring homosexual members. Knopp's request came after members of the council's Parks Committee last week told Scoutmaster Greta DeAngelis they would vote against issuing her a permit for a three-hour campfire and recruitment program Oct. 24. The committee voted unanimously to pass the matter on to the full council for its Sept. 28 meeting

Liberals have warned that the Church of England would break into "civil war" if the American Church is disciplined for its consecration of the Anglican Communion's first active homosexual bishop. There could be mass resignations amongst clergy who are sympathetic to the action taken by the Episcopal Church of the USA (ECUSA), according to the Dean of Southwark, the Rt Rev Colin Slee. He said that recommendations from the Eames Commission that propose the exclusion of bishops supportive of Canon Gene Robinson's consecration from future Anglican summits would be devastating for the unity of the Communion Church of England. "There...

From The Orange County Register The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles filed lawsuits Tuesday seeking to "secure and protect the church properties" at three local breakaway parishes, including St. James Church in Newport Beach. The suits, filed in both Los Angeles and Orange County, aim to "preserve these churches as houses of worship for faithful Episcopalians as they have been since their founding," Bishop J. Jon Bruno said through his attorney. The parishes, also including All Saints in Long Beach and St. David's in North Hollywood, broke from the Episcopal Church USA last month over a variety of differences, particularly...

A delegation of American bishops flew into London yesterday for talks with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, following reports that they are to be severely disciplined by the worldwide Anglican Church. The liberal bishops have been dismayed by suggestions that they could be barred by Dr Williams from Anglican summits as punishment for backing Anglicanism's first actively gay bishop last year. The delegation has the support of the liberal Primate of the American Episcopal Church, Bishop Frank Griswold, who presided at the consecration of Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire. Bishop Griswold is also understood to have...

Emphasizing the Anglican Primates' agreement that "bishops are to respect the boundaries of one another's dioceses and provinces," Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold today sent a letter of concern to Archbishop Henry L. Orombi after a third Southern California congregation yesterday aligned with the Ugandan Diocese of Luweero. Griswold also issued the following statement to media: "I am saddened by the action of clergy and members of three congregations in the Diocese of Los Angeles and their desire to separate themselves from the life of the Episcopal Church. I know how assiduously Bishop Bruno has sought to be a minister...

NEWTON — The parents of a Vernon boy have filed suit against a local Boy Scout troop and the Boy Scouts of America for alleged verbal abuse by a troop leader on a camp outing. The seven-count civil action filed Monday in state Superior Court alleges that 11-year-old Robbie Kent was yelled at abusively by troop leader William O’Mealy on May 15. Boy Scout Troop 404 was on a three-day camping trip in Sandy Hook when the alleged incident occurred. The lawsuit claims the boy picked up a parmesan cheese container to sprinkle some on his spaghetti and accidentally spilled...

(In response to the pastoral letter of the Bishop of the Diocese of Los Angeles, sent on August 18, 2004, to Episcopal Churches in the diocese and posted on the diocesan Web site at www.ladiocese.org/indexentry.htm.) The priests and deacons of St. James Church and All Saints' Church are clergy of the Diocese of Luweero, where they have been received by the Rt. Rev. Evans Kisekka under his ecclesiastical authority. They are now canonically resident in the Diocese of Luweero. They are not clergy of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America or the Diocese of Los Angeles. The...

The Newport City Council unanimously voted this week to turn down a request from the Boy Scouts to rent the building that had, for years, housed the office of Mrs. Santa Claus - Dorothy Grover. The problem with the request, explained City Manager Sam Sasaki after the meeting, was "a question of separation of church and state." Newport resident Tom Gravon had contacted the city administration, and sent a letter to the News-Times on the issue, raising the question of the appropriateness of a municipal government leasing a property to an organization with broad ties to various religions. The building...

MEMPHIS - The Memphis-based Chickasaw Council of the Boy Scouts has ended a 78-year camping tradition by selling Camp Tallaha, a 173-acre property just outside Charleston, to DMI Fine Timber and Hunting Properties in Lyon. Doug Mauldin, president of DMI, said the property would be developed into an upscale hunting and recreational resort. Terms of the sale were not disclosed. "This certainly was a bittersweet occasion," said Roy Rhodes, scout executive of the Chickasaw Council, the largest youth service organization in the Mid-South, serving West Tennessee, North Mississippi and East Arkansas. "Our scouts have been going there for summer camp...

Heart of Florida United Way continues to hemorrhage money after three years of declining contributions, further shaking public confidence and prompting what critics call long-overdue changes after its largest loss in a decade. As the charity makes plans to increasingly target wealthy individuals and small businesses while also raising money for specific crusades, area nonprofit leaders are calling for an end to the United Way's monopoly on fall fund raising. Traditionally, member agencies of the Heart of Florida United Way, which serves Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties, do minimal campaigning during the charity's two-month drive, but they say that's no...

The United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania has decided to distribute funds held in escrow for the local Boy Scouts organization to two other greater Philadelphia organizations that benefit youth. The United Way took this action because the Cradle of Liberty Council has remained steadfast in support of the national Boy Scout policy regarding the appointment of homosexuals to leadership positions. Nonetheless, this latest action by the United Way disappointed local Scout leaders and has left them scrambling to make up the funding shortfall. Pat Coviello, executive vice president of the Cradle of Liberty Council, said he thought the United Way...